Physical unclonable function based anti-counterfeiting system

This invention relates to a device for identifying genuine and counterfeited goods using challenge-response pairs (CRP) based on physical unclonable function (PUF), said device comprising one or more antennae for emitting a number of first electromagnetic signals as challenges to a good and for receiving a number of second electromagnetic signals as responses from the good. Both challenge and response forming a challenge-response pair for said good, wherein at least one of the antennae is a wideband antenna, a software defined radio (SDR) unit arranged for emitting said first electromagnetic signal(s) as challenge(s) and arranged for receiving said second electromagnetic signal(s) as response(s), a challenge-response pair evaluation unit for analysing said challenge-response pair(s) and to provide a result acknowledging if the good is genuine or counterfeit. The SDR can be equipped with different software modules, which alter the generation of the electromagnetic signals and therefore the challenge-response pairs. By using SDR, it is possible to create different sets of CRPs, which can be modified even after the deployment of the anti-counterfeiting systems and goods in the market.

THE MAIN APPLICATION AREAS

Counterfeiting of goods

THE MAIN INNOVATIVE ASPECTS AND ADVANTAGES

The application of SDR technology considerably increases the challenge-response space in comparison to hardware based conventional systems, because the emission of electromagnetic signals can be dynamically modified with the deployment of new software modules (i.e., waveforms) in the readers after the deployment in the market. This is not possible with hardware based conventional systems where the challenge-response pairs are defined in the manufacturing phase and which cannot be changed afterwards or changed in a limited way because the hardware components are fixed. The application of SDR reduces the risk of clonability (which is a serious problem in counterfeiting) and it can mitigate the risk of security breaches because new CRPs can be dynamically re-defined and deployed again with new software modules in case the algorithm of the previous CRPs has been disclosed and reproduced.

In addition, a SDR based device, such as a SDR based smartphone, can also be used to detect and report to the factory the identification of counterfeit PUF goods. This is an additional advantage of preferred aspects of the present invention.